Eternal Twilight
by Melchior the Mewthree
Summary: The cicle is ending, and the world's destiny is about to take a sharp turn. The storm was coming. Ash finds himself in the midst of strange events that will lead him to his true past and fate, and that of the entire world. (Multi-chapter trilogy; Pls R&R)
1. The Prologue: Frozen Ashes

**_An Introduction, for those who read introductions..._**

****

_A long time ago, Ash used to exist within a small group of five friends, and what kept them so close was their dream of becoming pokemon masters. One day, their differences and their ambition distanced them from each other, but soon they set off on their journey, wondering if they would ever meet each other again._

_And five years passed..._

_Ash, now fifteen, has participated of many leagues and harnessed great ability as a trainer, and these days rests in his hometown. But a strange and disturbing dream, an unlikely encounter with one of the rarest legendaries, and an invitation to the greatest championship yet, will send the young trainer spiraling down in an intricate web of hidden secrets, ancient creatures and forgotten pasts, in which the five trainers shall meet once more and the fate of humans and pokemon alike shall be decided._

_As they tumble through light and shadow..._

_For the storm was coming..._

This fic has been in my mind for what? Three, maybe four years? It has changed considerably in that time and if you heard the original idea, you'd probably have thought I was talking about another story altogether. Still, the main reason for me to write this is still there, and this is the first story for Pokémon I've ever come up with, though four years are really good to stir and add new ideas, as well as improving my writing skills.

This will be a long and intricate trilogy, and will feature many characters, both from canon and original, but all will have a part in the play. I appreciate all reviews, just so I can know that someone is reading this, and I thank any support.

I'd also like to thank **nightdragon0 **for beta-reading the Prologue and giving me some pointers.

All in all, enjoy the ride as you ingress within the darkest corners of the pokemon world.

--- XXX --- XXX ---

**_Eternal Twilight_**

_a trilogy by_

**_Melchior the Mewthree_**

--- XXX --- XXX ---

**_The Prologue – Frozen Ashes_**

_I have never been to St. John's Wood. I dare not. I should be afraid of the innumerable night of fir trees, afraid to come upon a blood red cup and the beating of the wings of the Eagle._

_--The Napoleon of Notting Hill, **G. K. Chesterton**_

--- XXX --- XXX ---

Mount Moon was a place of secrets.

A great mountain, towering over the lands of Kanto like a titan of gray stone. It was an old place and a dark place. Its tunnels were like an intricate spider web of passages and galleries, most of which rarely saw light, some of which had never seen any at all. Inhabited by hundreds of living creatures, and even those about who one could argue over that. A cacophony of life, hidden life, within the network of hollow spaces in the cold of the rock and the earth.

You could search there for ages, and the mountain would surprise you every time, showing tidbits of its mysteries, though it would never show them all. Remnants of old civilizations, fossils of ancient pokemon, and much more than one could count. But the mountain would never show all of its secrets.

At least, up until now. For the storm was coming.

That specific day, the ice rained from the iron-gray heavens in the form of dizzying clumps of snow, dancing merrily in the howling winds. It was the first day of winter, and it was the worst winter seen in decades, or at least that's what the meteorologists said.

Gary didn't know if that was true, but he sure as hell knew that is was cold like the devil's heart out there.

He walked by the side of the winding road, around two miles before Mount Moon, at a section of the path where it forked, one side going to the mountain, the other probably to a chilling and long travel. He had snow wherever he could think of, and the flakes kissed his face as they fell. The winds were like knives, cutting and burning his exposed skin.

Gary's breath steamed in the air, and his teeth clattered against each other. His long brown overcoat billowed mercilessly in the whirling winds, and his sneakers, which hid no more than three socks, dug inches in the snow. Even with them Gary thought that he probably wouldn't be feeling his feet for very long. His hands were already in the land of numbness.

Umbreon shivered every once in a while from his slightly warmer spot within Gary's coat. The ebony gold-ringed fox wasn't very used to the cold, and his slick fur wasn't very helpful in maintaining his body warm. Gary didn't mind, and honestly enjoyed having Umbreon so close to him, since body heat was a giving in that weather.

Gary was heading towards the mountain, having received quite an interesting call from his grandfather not a day ago. Apparently a very rare pokemon, maybe even a legendary, had been constantly seen around Mount Moon as of late, and Gary was the one closest to it at the time. The professor wanted for him to find and scan it with his pokedex, so the data could be studied in detail. Never being one to back away from a challenge, Gary accepted it promptly.

He tried to find a ride, but it seemed that no one would dare use conventional transportation in that weather, unless one was hoping to play ice-skating with tires.

Umbreon sneezed from within the teen's clothes, voicing his unpleasantness from the climate.

"Don't worry, Umbreon," Gary said, or tried to say, his voice coming slightly jumbled. "We'll be there in no time."

Umbreon remained quiet, either not really believing or just saving his energy.

The rest of the walk was cold, a stride through the skeletal beauty of a winter morning, even though the sun was the last thing Gary expected to see that day.

--- XXX --- XXX ---

The cave's entrance was like a winter beast's mouth; icy stalagmites and stalactites like sharp teeth just waiting to tear the unsuspecting traveler into ribbons. Even then, Gary was pleased to find it, quickly making his way away from the wailing snowstorm.

He let Umbreon jump out from within his coat while he tried to get some of the snow from it. The black fox seemed at the same time pleased to stretch his legs and unhappy to leave the warmth. He too had some snow in his fur, which he got rid of dog-like.

The tunnel was filled with working lamps lining its sides, set specifically for anyone who might want to venture within the dark depths. It still wasn't that much inviting, to tell the truth.

"Come on, Umbreon," he said, starting to walk and expecting the eon to be following, but was surprised to look back and see him hesitating. Umbreon hardly ever hesitate to follow him anywhere.

_"Gary,"_ the fox spoke mentally, getting Gary by surprise a second time. That was something else the dark type almost never did. _"I don't think this is a good idea."_ He looked at his sides constantly, like he thought something was going to crawl and lunge at him at a moment's notice.

Gary was worried, but kept his cool. He didn't come this far just walk away now. "Come on, buddy. You're just imagining things. Besides, any hostile pokemon we find in here you can easily take care of."

The eevee-lution still seemed unwilling, but he couldn't back out from his trainer's call. He nodded, and proceeded to follow Gary through the artificially lighted passages, all the while looking over his shoulders, the strange feeling he had not leaving him for once.

--- XXX --- XXX ---

The tunnel grew darker and colder as they walked it, which was weird for Gary, since he thought that by leaving the storm it would be warmer. But still, they seemed to be entering a glacier instead of a cave. The trainer's breath steamed on the air, as did the umbreon's, as both dodged spikes of rock and, sometimes, ice.

It wasn't long until there was no light left in the walls and Gary had to put his flashlight, which he kept deep in his coat, to use. The passages just grew colder and darker, and they seemed to be climbing down a ladder, heading deeper and deeper into the ancient earth. They were shivering.

Gary noticed that Umbreon grew more and more uneasy as they ventured in the cave, the way he constantly looked all around him in an almost paranoid fashion giving the brown-haired boy the creeps.

"Umbreon?" he inquired, and his pokemon eyed him again, and this time the uneasiness was more than visible in his eyes. "What is it, anyway?"

The pokemon hesitated, before saying, _"There is something in here."_ He continued to eye behind his shoulders and at the shadows surrounding them. _"Something ancient... and dangerous. I can't really tell exactly."_

Gary was truly worried now, but he would never let that show. He couldn't look weak in front of his own pokemon. But, if there was something in there to make even Umbreon grow that scared, which was something that the dark type knew how to hide even better than Gary, then it wasn't something to take lightly.

The shadows enveloped everywhere around them, and the cold was like the caress of death on their skins.

Gary shook his head. "It doesn't matter," he said, making Umbreon look at him incredulously. "We came here to find a legendary pokemon, and gramps said he was seen for the last time venturing within these caves." He looked at the darkness before him, mocking him, daring him to enter its domains. "I didn't come this far to give up now."

Umbreon watched with disbelief as Gary started walking again. After a moment, the black canine shook his head and followed, thinking on how Gary's pride sometimes took the best of him.

--- XXX --- XXX ---

The sky fell over the mountains in white winter as he jumped gracefully over the rocks and the snow. Heavy paws struck soundlessly over the white sheet blanketing the gray stone and red eyes surveyed the pale landscape.

The creature stood still for a moment, having sensed something. He looked into a patch of rock and, with an erupting roar, shattered the thin ice hiding the inner entrance.

He looked at the new passage for a moment, and then jumped within it, exchanging the merciless rain of frozen water for the frozen darkness.

--- XXX --- XXX ---

It was so cold that Gary had to grip to his flashlight with all his might so it wouldn't fall off his hands from the shacking. He was starting to wonder if it was such a good idea to ignore Umbreon's feelings about the place. But an Oak wasn't one to back away from a challenge.

_But this isn't a challenge,_ a voice in the back of his mind told him. _It's suicide, and you'll end up dead in an ice cube like this._

Still, the teen ventured in the cold bleakness, not daring to take a single step back. He needed to prove his grandfather he could do it. He needed to prove he could be a professor as great as Samuel was. He needed to prove to himself he could make it.

_Crack._

Gary froze. That sound. That was the sound of ice breaking.

_Crack, Crunch..._

He pointed the flashlight down, only to see himself, his many reflections staring back at him from the slowly shattering ice beneath his feet.

Before he could do anything, it gave in, and he plummeted down into the abyss, crystals raining all around his vision.

"Umbreon!" he heard his pokemon call for him, but he soon found himself too far to hear, the freezing wind wiping and burning his face. The flashlight whirled around him as he screamed, its light reflecting in the frozen walls.

--- XXX --- XXX ---

He stopped his descent through the tunnels when he heard the scream. It was a human scream, that was certain, and it wasn't too far from where he was headed.

He padded faster through the dark, hoping that he wasn't too late.

--- XXX --- XXX ---

Gary woke up feeling cold, pain and what could possibly be a broken rib. The flashlight was beside him, but it was beyond repair. Gary let his chestnut eyes take on his surroundings, and he saw that he was in the bottom end of an icy slope, which must have been the reason why he didn't die from the fall. It wasn't so dark in there and, as he looked at his side, he saw an entrance, and a bluish light filtering from it.

Wincing against the pain, he shakily stood up, trying to balance himself in the icy floor. It was simply freezing there, the temperature having dropped so much that Gary was surprised to have awoken at all. He should have slept until he froze to death.

He wobbled to the passage, which didn't seem like it was natural, and entered in a grand chamber. He gasped softly as the sight.

It was gigantic. He stood in a bridge-like platform that stretched until a large altar of some sort, at the very center. The actual walls were many yards from him, and beneath the bridge that, he now noticed, almost hovered in the air, there was a profound pit that seemed to have no bottom. The whole place had obviously been built by someone, the faraway ceiling showing many intricate carvings that made Gary think of Roman architecture. It was an awesome sight.

Moved by curiosity and marvel, Gary walked slowly through the iced bridge, spikes protruding vertically from its sides. He moved until he found himself before the altar at the core of the chamber.

A strange, dark-blue stone stood in a pedestal at the very center, and there were ten large ice crystals outlining the place in an organized way. The stone was translucent, and it seemed to crack with an internal bluish fire. Gary looked at the large ice block closest to him, and he noticed something within it.

He moved closer to it, the cold and the silence of the place hitting his skin and his ears and his soul. He moved until he could see what was inside.

His eyes widened, his face paled, and he covered his mouth in horror, backing away from the block almost instinctively. There, within the frozen prison, lay a child. By his size the kid didn't seem to be older than ten, but Gary could never be sure. The body was atrophied, no more than bones and skin and probably whatever was left of his muscles. His arms and legs were drawn close to his body in fetal position, and the head was almost a skull, the teeth and the jaw clearly visible, smiling in a sick parody of a humorless grin.

Gary did not dare look upon the other crystals, knowing full well what he'd find. He just stood there, trying to ease the sensation on his stomach. He wobbled and almost fell, gripping on the pedestal for support, and is eyes met the blue stone, burning with a cold flame, and then he realized that the faint light that filled the room was coming from it. He found himself drawn to that flame.

"Umbreon!" He almost jumped out of his skin when he heard his pokemon's calling. He turned to the entrance, where a tired Umbreon panted and shivered, his labored breath coming in white clouds. "Umbreon!" the pokemon called once more as he ran towards his trainer.

Gary smiled and bent down to hug the running fox, more than relieved to see him. He embraced the black canine for quite a while, unwilling to let go of his warmth.

_"Gary,"_ Umbreon called him. _"Let's get away from here."_

Gary looked at Umbreon's ruby eyes with his own, and then looked at the stone. Suddenly he let go of the fox and, walking firmly, he approached the cold object, his gaze entranced in the fire within it. "This stone," he said, as he kept walking. "There's something about it."

_"Gary, please,"_ Umbreon pleaded.

But the teen was oblivious to him, his eyes transfixed. He stood right before the object and, with a shaky hand, touched its freezing surface.

His mind was bombarded with visions. Sights and feelings that did not belong to him, a sense of despair, hate, cold and darkness. The pain in Gary's heart was so intense he thought it was going to break apart. He saw strange things of another time, strange places of another age, forgotten for too long, and now reawakened by his simple touch. He felt something else, something living within the stone, desperate to come out, to see the light, to breath, to _live_.

The stone shattered in a blast of air, knocking Gary like a rag-doll yards away onto the bridge, skidding and rolling until he stopped. He lay there, unable to move, only shivering and replaying in his mind what he had felt and seen. It was so cold.

He felt something soft and wet touching his cheek gingerly, and he opened glassy eyes to see Umbreon nuzzling him with a concerned look on his own. At that sight and what he had seen, Gary almost felt like crying.

"I think this is the time when I thank you," a deep, seductive feminine voice came to his ears, and Umbreon turned sharply, growling like there was no tomorrow. Gary half-sat, half-lay in the icy surface, and looked at what had spoken, his jaw dropping.

There, standing over the shards that were the pedestal and the stone, was a great bird, her feathers the color of snow, her eyes that of the darkest skies. At first, Gary almost thought he was looking at the legendary Articuno, but he soon dismissed it. She possessed tendrils of white light that protruded from her tail-feathers and her wingtips, waving unnaturally in the air that froze into tiny crystals around them. Her gaze was penetrating as she eyed Gary and Umbreon, who was still growling deeply.

Gary tried to utter the words that were lodged in his throat. "W-who... are you?"

She looked at him, an amused expression in her face. "My name?" she asked, the human words coming perfectly out of her throat. "You wish to know my name, human?"

Gary tried to stand up. Not an easy task. "Yes."

She tipped her head to the side, curiously watching the trainer struggling to get up. "Very well, human." she said. "For freeing me, you have earned that right."

The faint light that filled the chamber seemed to slowly dim as Gary stood fully. "Well?" he asked the bird, impatiently.

"My name," she said, "is Litanias"

Gary looked at her eyes. "Litanias?"

"Yes, Litanias," she told him. "That is my name. A name I haven't heard in ages." She closed her eyes, and her next words came in whisper. "It has been so long, so long since I heard it. I had almost forgotten how it sounded."

Gary was mesmerized by the pokemon. Was that the one people had seen around Mount Moon? No, it wasn't her. She had been trapped within that stone, and Gary was sure of it. He had felt it.

"Umb umbreon?" Umbreon asked her, though Gary did not understand anything.

Litanias opened her eyes of night sky, and looked at the dark fox, almost seeming to grin, if a bird could actually grin. "What do I want?" she repeated. "Oh, I want so many things, my fellow umbreon." Her face then darkened. "Many things that are lost to me, that I'll never have."

Gary looked once more at the ice crystals, and the withered children within them. "Who are they?" he asked.

"My prey."

His eyes widened. "Your... prey?"

"Of a time much long ago," she said, her voice reverberating through the frozen walls. "When I fed of fear and nightmare and joy and dream."

Gary's heart turned cold itself as he heard her words, and he paled when she looked at him with a look that he could only translate in hunger.

"And I believe," she said hauntingly, "that I could go with a feast right now. After all, it has been a long wait."

"Umbreon!" the pokemon cried as he stood between his master and the cold bird.

Gary looked at him, and regained his senses. He wouldn't let no Articuno rip-off do whatever she wanted with them. "Umbreon, Hyper Beam!"

Golden-white energy seeped from Umbreon's snout, forming into an orb of power, which fired in a large streaking beam towards Litanias. She hid herself within her wings before the ray hit, the explosion sending ice and rock shrapnel everywhere.

Gary used his coat to protect himself from the flying projectiles, and then expectantly looked at the destruction.

The smoke slowly cleared, revealing, to Gary's utter surprise, a perfectly intact Litanias, her tendrils flowing in the air like the wings of ghosts. She screeched, beating her large wings and taking on the air, sending cold gusts over to trainer and pokemon.

"You do not understand, do you?" she spoke as she glided near the chamber's roof. "I'm the Mistress of the Cold Nights! The Sister of Ice!" She stopped midair, glaring at her opponents. "I am the one who knows the darkest and coldest depths of your hearts, and I shall feed upon them, or use them against yourselves!" She then lashed her wings, the tendrils wiping the air and sending two crossing blades of blue energy directly towards Gary.

The teen watched paralyzed as the attack flew towards him. But, before it hit, something rammed his side, and he almost fell of the bridge. Gripping onto one of the large spikes, he looked to see, for a splitting moment, Umbreon standing where he was before, then being hit by the attack himself. The pokemon cried in blinding pain as he was carried by the energy, which then exploded several feet from where Gary was.

It was an eternity before the pokemon fell to the ground, his body limp and almost completely frozen. He did not move afterwards.

"Umbreon!" Gary called for him, but received no answer. He desperately reached into his coat, fumbling frantically in the pockets until he found it. He took out his hand, producing Umbreon's pokeball, which hadn't been used in months, and pointed it towards the black form. "Umbreon, return!" The red beam traveled from the ball to the pokemon but, unlike what was to be expected, nothing happened. Gary started to become terrified. "Return!" he insisted, still without result.

Ignoring the pain and the cold in his body, he ran towards his pokemon, fearing the worst. The ball fell forgotten on his wake in a _Clunk_. He ran until he was right on top of Umbreon, and he took the fox on his arms. He wasn't breathing.

Gary felt a terrible sentiment rising within him. "Umbry?" he asked softly, too softly, slightly shacking the pokemon. "Umbry, please?" His eyes started to sting, his vision blurring. "Umbreon, please, wake up."

There was no answer. The eon's eyes where closed shut, and his own tears of pain had frozen them like that.

The tears were already falling, but Gary seemed not to notice, his eyes frozen on the empty corpse on his arms.

"Don't worry, human," he heard Litanias' deep voice behind him, approaching. "You will be with him soon."

Gary did not move from his spot, or utter a single word. He just watched as the drops fell and crystallized even before they hit the ebony coat, its owner, once the kid's favorite, no longer breathing, no longer living.

It was then that the earth started shacking beneath their feet, and a deafening roar erupted from it. Litanias squawked and took flight, while Gary instinctively placed one hand on the ground to balance himself.

Then, from one of the many walls, a jet of hellfire erupted, melting everything on its wake. A large round opening appeared and, from it, he leaped gracefully on the bridge, his large padded feet making no sound at all, and he looked at Litanias with crimson eyes.

"Who are you?" she screeched. "How dare you interrupt me?"

Entei's look was impassive, and he turned to Gary, who watched him with disbelieving tear-rimmed eyes, a dark bundle in his arms.

The rage bubbled within the lion-like legendary, as he turned once more to the seething bird. _"I'm the one who should ask you that, fiend!"_ His telepathic voice boomed over their minds. _"You, who takes an innocent life for your sheer pleasure!"_

"I take a life for that's what I do!" she told him, still flapping in the air. "I must feed on their minds, for that's how I sustain my powers!"

_"You are no more than a vampire!"_ The fiery beast lunged against the icy one, so fast he was a blur, and he knocked her to the center of the altar. Embers formed within his masked snout, as he prepared to incinerate her.

But she clawed his stomach with icy claws, and she wrapped her freezing threads tightly on his throat. Entei roared in pain, the sound causing another quake. He pulled away in a leap, leaving her to take the air again.

In the highest part of the chamber, she looked down at him. "You still haven't told me your name, fire type," she said calmly.

Entei glared at her. _"If you really must know, I am Entei, the incarnation of the volcano!"_

"The volcano's incarnation?" she asked, amusedly. "That's all? Such a title you have."

Her only answer was a Flamethrower attack, which grazed her left wing, making her cry out in pain.

She knew she had the disadvantage there, and she couldn't die so soon after she had been freed. She looked at the iced ceiling, and an idea came to her.

Entei prepared himself to send a Fireball, when Litanias screeched once more, the sound this time loud enough to pierce their ears mercilessly. The ice reverberated all over the chamber, until it shattered, the iced bodies within the crystals breaking in a shower of tiny pieces. The stalactites on the roof broke and fell, spearing all that was below them.

Entei jumped around the blue spikes, making his way towards Gary and melting those which were to fall on the teen, who was now crouched with Umbreon's body held protectively on his arms. When the legendary finally looked towards Litanias, she was no longer there; a large hole in the upper stones all that could be seen.

He ruffed in irritation, then turned towards Gary, who watched him with an expression that bordered from utter fear to utmost gratitude, though which was real was impossible to tell. Entei looked at the cold body in the trainer's arms.

Gary edged back half-consciously as Entei approached him, not knowing what to do or how to react. But, still, he struggled to remain calm as the great lion gingerly touched the eon's body.

_"There is still a small spark of life within him,"_ he told Gary. _"I can make it grow until it's steady enough for him to live."_

Entei closed his red eyes, and bowed his head. Gary felt the warmth that suddenly surged from the pokemon to the eevee-lution. It was almost an eternity before Gary could feel Umbreon's body warming up and, even though he couldn't possibly explain it, he could see Umbreon's life spark in his mind. He could feel it growing from a flickering match-like fire to a small, steady flame, which grew and grew until it was as strong as a fireball. It was then that Gary felt Umbreon's heart start to beat again, and his lungs breathe shakily and, back to the waking world, Gary felt and saw Umbreon shivering in his arms.

Another long moment before the fox opened his own red eyes to meet the brown teary ones of Gary, who promptly hugged the dark type the closest and the tightest he would allow.

"Oh, God, Umbreon," he sobbed. "I'm so glad you're okay." His voice was jumbled and, under normal circumstances, he would have cared about showing so much emotion. But, right then, he didn't.

Umbreon weakly licked his cheek, consolingly more than anything.

He raised his eyes to meet the Entei, to thank him, but the fire beast was gone, and Gary couldn't tell through where he had left.

As he stood up, Umbreon held firmly in his arms, Gary wondered what had truly happened. He remembered the visions he had, when he touched Litanias' stone. It was all a jumble of flashes, blurred and disconnected, but there was one that lingered, one that was as clear to him as a summer sky.

A tree burned in a great field, but it was not any tree. Gary recognized it. It was an ash tree.

And, as he made his way to the entrance, he felt that what he had seen there, that day, was just the beginning.

--- XXX --- XXX ---

The snowstorm had subsided, and the whitened landscape could now be truly seen. It was as if the world had been blanketed by cold, white cotton.

A figure watched the winter beauty with expressionless green eyes. He saw the explosion at the peak of Mount Moon, and he saw the great white bird soaring towards the gray skies. He watched as it flew higher and faster, onto the horizon and away from anything and anyone.

The figure then walked away into the frozen out forest, the snow crunching beneath his booted feet and the soft wind chilling his face. He couldn't stay there anymore. He had much to do.

For the storm was coming.

--- XXX --- XXX ---


	2. I: 1: The Black Wolf

**_Book I - Awakening_**

_I'll tell you all my secrets_

_But I lie about my past_

_So send me off to bed forevermore_

_--Tango 'Till They're Sore, **Tom Waits**_

--- XXX --- XXX ---

_Ash was dreaming..._

_In the dream he stood in a lush meadow of tall grass and large white stones. He looked towards the sun as it started to set on the western horizon, the sky becoming a flurry of blues, oranges, and purples like a rainbow spilled over an artist's canvas. _

_He looked around and saw Pikachu standing on a rock beside him, his long black-tipped ears swaying in the soft breeze that blew, making the emerald blades brush Ash's legs and blowing his raven-black bangs over his eyes. The pokemon stood there, looking at his trainer with tear stained eyes._

_Ash couldn't tell why he was so sad, but he knew, somehow, that he was part of the cause._

_The light dimmed, and the boy saw the great orb reach the mountains that sketched themselves in the distance. He marveled as it changed from blazing yellow to sparkling gold to fiery orange. The ribbons of light that stretched towards the clouds and onto the fields were beautiful, almost magical._

_But, as he looked towards Pikachu again, he saw the mouse stare at the sunset with the same look of unhappiness, tears cascading across his furry cheeks. Ash wanted to ask what was wrong, but he had no voice or will._

_He felt a cold pain in his heart, his sight drifting to the sun that, even before it was halfway beneath the mountains, started to become darker and bleaker, going to a bloody red in color, its beams receding and disappearing as the orb itself died before Ash's eyes. He felt as if the sun was in despair and pain, and he thought that his heart was going to shatter._

_Then he saw someone before him, standing there as if he were there all along. He seemed young, almost as young as Ash, and the dying light behind him made him a silhouette with no features._

_He looked at Ash, Ash looked at him, and after a while the kid pointed to the sky._

_Ash looked up, spotting in the corner of his eye the sun disappearing in his last breath, and then came the night, the infinite galaxies moving slowly overhead. The moon started to light the world in it's own faint luminescence, even though there was no more sun to provide any shine to it._

_A fallen star streaked through the night sky, and Ash's eyes followed it to the ground, where he saw another child, this one slightly taller than the other. The new kid kept looking at Ash like the first, and after another amount of time, he also pointed up._

_Ash saw all of the stars, all the galaxies fall towards the earth in a shower of crystal and silver. The moon's light faded, and it started to shatter and break, crumbling down slowly, the sound like a wail. The icicle stabbed Ash's heart once more._

_Soon, there were no more stars, and there was no more moon. The night, like the day before it, was dead, and the world drowned in darkness._

_Slowly the light came back, but it wasn't the light of the moon or the sun or the stars. It was the faint lighting of the embers that scattered through the burnt grass and waste lands._

_Ash looked at Pikachu, but instead saw another child, a girl, holding the pokemon's body in her arms. She, like the others who were still there, was no more than a wraith, and Pikachu wasn't crying anymore. He was dead, the silky fur around his once lively eyes stained with moisture._

_Ash wanted to cry, but found that he couldn't. He could only stare at the dead bundle in the wraith's arms._

_"Ash..." came a voice to his ears, sprouting from everywhere and nowhere. "Ash, can you hear me...?"_

_He said nothing._

_"Ash, you are sleeping," the voice told him. "Living a world of lies, living a life and a dream that will never be yours..."_

_"I know I am sleeping," Ash said, slightly surprised to know he was in a dream. "But I'll wake up soon."_

_"No Ash, you don't understand." The voice seemed familiar to him somehow, but he couldn't tell whose it was, or even if it was male or female. " Your waking life is another dream, one that you must rid yourself from before you can progress. Before you can face your fate."_

_"And what would that be?" he asked the voice._

_"You are the doom and salvation of all, Ash," the voice said, apparently ignoring his question. "But, before you can see that, you and Pikachu must wake up."_

_"Wake up to what?"_

_"To the truth..."_

_Ash's temper flared. "And what is that truth?" he screamed, the words echoing through the plains, but received no answer. He didn't see the three children disappearing, but they were no longer there, and Pikachu lay dead on the soil before him. The light started to subdue, the flames dying like the landscape where they had been, and soon there was no more than darkness to the world._

_And, in that roaring dark, a man laughed with the voice of a maniac._

--- XXX --- XXX ---

**_Chapter One - The Black Wolf_**

--- XXX --- XXX ---

Ash sat up in his bed gasping for breath, the cold sweat soaking his skin and clothes. For a while he sat there, amidst the shadows of his bedroom, the fresh nightmare replaying again and again in his mind's eye. He didn't know if he had screamed, but he must have, for Pikachu was standing beside him on the bed fully awake. He seemed shaken, almost as shaken as Ash himself.

"I'm sorry Pikachu," he said, feeling a small pang of guilt. "Did I wake you up?"

"Pika," the mouse answered, shaking his head and smiling dismissively.

The boy yawned. "Well then," he continued, "what are you doing up?"

"Pi. Pika," he muttered looking away, seemingly embarrassed. Ash couldn't really tell what he said, but he had enough experience around the pokemon to know that he was avoiding the subject.

Ash wasn't in the mood to press, so instead he looked at the bedside table, seeing the clock marking 4:34 AM in bright red lines. Too early, he thought, but he didn't feel like going back to sleep so soon. Still, he lay back down, averting his eyes from the shadowy forms that appeared in the walls, for they suddenly became quite frightening to him.

After some seconds, Pikachu leaped softly on his chest, surprising him slightly.

"What is it, Pikachu?" he asked his furry friend.

The mouse said nothing, simply lying down, stretched across the teen's chest, looking intensively at his eyes.

Ash was puzzled, but more than glad for the company. He placed his arms around the pokemon, who closed his brown eyes in drowsiness and content.

The pokemon lay dead in the arms of a wraith...

_...you are sleeping..._

The urge to tighten that embrace and never let go of his friend was stronger than anything. And Ash did just that. Pikachu did nothing against it.

He looked at the golden mouse as his breaths became slower until he was snoring softly. Ash knew he wasn't going to have the same pleasure, so he looked at the white, featureless ceiling of his twilit bedroom for nearly two hours that passed, until the first golden rays of light started to come through the curtains.

_...you must wake up..._

A man laughed in the darkness...

And all the while, he thought about the dream, and he felt that something was wrong. Very wrong.

--- XXX --- XXX ---

That morning Pewter City was coated in white, small flakes of snow falling upon the landscape. The streets were blocked, the schools were closed, but none of that mattered for a certain person.

It had been a trying time for Gary as he spent the night awake, waiting in the lobby of the Pokemon Center. He had passed the small hours either pacing around the linoleum floor or sleeping shallowly for no more than minutes. When the sun was finally coming up on the Kanto horizon through the dissipating clouds, he had rings under his eyes and a tired body and mind. Whenever he dreamed that night, they had been strange dreams with white birds, dead foxes and burning trees.

"Gary?" Nurse Joy called for him. She was wearing pajamas and her pink hair was loose, since Gary had arrived there when she was just preparing herself to sleep. "You can see him now."

Gary had been caught fetching his probably one hundredth cup of coffee, but even in his eagerness he had the presence of mind of setting it down before hurrying towards the lady, which seemed almost as tired as he was.

It was probably just his imagination, but Gary felt steadily colder as he entered within the bleak inner rooms of the Center, like the way he felt within Mount Moon. He was starting to hate cold.

It was depressing, the once strong eon lying limp over the table, so many plugs coming out of him that Gary could hardly stand the sight. In the ICU devices of all kinds beeped and flashed, the green line of his heartbeats jumping up and down slowly.

"Is he going to be okay?" he asked Joy.

"Don't worry, the danger already passed," she reassured him, and Gary let out a breath that he didn't know he was holding. "He should probably stay here for the next few days, but I'm sure he'll recover nicely."

Gary was more than relieved. After he had left the tunnels, Umbreon had blacked-out and he was terrified that the pokemon might still die in his hands. He had ran through the snow and the freezing temperatures without stopping once, and thus had almost fainted himself at the doors of the Center, the hour having almost reached midnight.

"Thank you Rika," he said, referring to her by her first name, which he had got to know over the many occasions he had passed that Center. "Really, if something had happened to him, I..."

"Don't think about that now, Gary. The important thing is that your umbreon is going to be okay." She looked back at the table and its occupant. "He was really lucky that you brought him when you did. A few more hours..." She left it at that, and Gary was glad she did.

"Can I go in?"

"Of course," she replied cheerfully. "I'm sure he wants to see you too. I don't think he's sleeping right now."

Inside the beeps and hums of the devices around the bed dominated the air. As soon as they stepped into the room, Umbreon, who was awake but resting nonetheless, half-opened one eye. He looked at Gary and relaxed once again.

"Hey, man," Gary greeted him as he knelt beside the table. He started scratching behind the fox's ears, and Umbreon closed his eye in delight.

Joy, who was watching the exchange with a smile, decided to leave the two alone. She left the room soundlessly, its now two occupants hardly noticing or caring. As she turned to the hallway, she grimaced as a thought of the reports she was still due to complete entered her mind.

"It was a real close call there, wasn't it? We were really lucky," Gary told his pokemon, but soon his face frowned in guilt. "It's all my fault. If I hadn't been so stubborn..."

Umbreon grinned, his eyes still closed as he enjoyed the petting. "Well, you can't deny your nature, Gary." he told his trainer.

Gary scratched the back of his own neck, a tad embarrassed. "Yeah, I guess..." He froze. "Umbreon, what did you say?"

The pokemon opened his eyes, staring at him puzzled. "I said that you can't deny..." He stopped short, his eyes also widening in realization. "Gary..."

"I... understood you," Gary said in disbelief, more to himself than to Umbreon, as if he was trying to ascertain his mind of that fact. "You... you spoke in your own speech, but... but I understood each one of the words."

They looked at each other for the longest time, hazel to red, none of them believing what was transpiring, and they became aware of just how much had happened in the last few days. It was unbelievable, and they both felt conflicting emotions concerning it, but mostly they were shocked.

After a while, Gary spoke up. "What's happening around here?"

But neither of them could truly answer that question, so once more the silence was all that greeted them.

He shook his head. "I'd better call gramps about this. He may know of something."

Umbreon looked as he was standing up. "Gary."

Gary turned to him. "What?"

Umbreon seemed to become uncomfortable, and he looked away. "Gary, why did you... trade Blastoise for me?"

Gary was honestly surprised by the question, and it took him a moment to reply. "Why do you ask, Umbreon?"

"Well, I wanted to ask you before but... you know... I never liked to speak telepathically about these things," he said, turning his eyes his trainer again.

The way Umbreon looked at Gary made him feel uneasy. His eyes seemed to communicate something, a feeling of sadness, shame, but he spoke in a much matter-of-fact tone.

"If Blastoise were there, he might have been able to protect you better than I did. He's your most powerful pokemon, Gary, not me."

Gary couldn't believe his ears. "Umbreon..."

The awkward moment that ensued was enough to lock the air on their lungs. It wasn't often that Gary felt that way around his pokemon. Maybe because he had never truly heard them. The though made him almost cringe, but instead he bowed his head. "Umbreon, I... I don't know why I did that," he told the fox, trying to carefully pick the words. "It just felt... right... at the time. But I honestly don't know."

Umbreon had been staring at him, in the studying way Gary had known him for, but that time he wished that the pokemon did not look at him like that. "Gary," he began. "Do you think this was meant to be?"

Gary's head snapped up. "What?"

"Do you think that we were meant to meet Litanias? The two of us?"

Gary just stood there for a long moment digesting that thought. Could it have been fate? He had taken Umbreon with him those months ago for no real reason, and he even felt like keeping him outside his pokeball, much like Ash did with his pikachu. He looked at the hospital paraphernalia around him. "I don't know, Umbreon. I don't know." Then the image of the burning ash tree flashed in his mind. "But I have a feeling that this may be only the first of many strange things that'll happen around here."

--- XXX --- XXX ---

**"And on the latest news, the strange meteorological phenomena near Goldenrod City have been spreading mainly northeast in the last three days. Scientists are puzzled by the strange abrupt changes in the region's weather, unable to find an explanation. Other regions like a number of islands in the Orange Archipelago, the mountains around Lavaridge and some locations around Kanto have also reported the strange phenomena. We'll be bringing you more information as it becomes available. Now we go to..."**

Ash flicked the TV off. He wasn't really interested in the news; he just thought that some TV could take his mind from that nightmare which still insisted on plaguing his mind. He was sitting on the sofa, Pikachu on his lap and both drinking hot chocolate with straws. The house was still mostly dark since the curtains had not yet been opened, but Ash wanted to wait until his mother woke up to think about doing that.

"Cha," Pikachu sighed satisfied, the empty cup between his golden paws.

Ash smiled. "You want another one, Pikachu?"

Pikachu looked up at him, and shook his head.

"Well, I'm not really hungry either." He got both glasses and took them to the kitchen, Pikachu following him and jumping up onto the table to watch. There was light coming in from the windows, and for a moment the two stood there, watching in wonder as the delicate threads of yellow-red danced across the room in a slow waltz. It was rare for both of them to see something like that, as it was rare for them to be up so early. But for Ash that morning had so far been quite out of the ordinary.

He took the cups to the sink and washed them, thinking about what he'd do that day. He could go to Prof. Oak's lab and help out, or maybe train. The only thing he didn't want was to stay home and let his mother drown him in housework. Speaking of housework...

"Pikachu, where's Mime?" he asked the rodent, who had been occupying himself with munching on an apple he had found sitting there on the table.

He looked up to Ash from his fruit, his head cocked to the side. "Pika pika?"

"Well, he usually wakes up with the dodrios. I wonder what's taking him so long."

Pikachu stared at his trainer for a moment, then tilted his head up, apparently in thought. After a while he shrugged. "Ka." And he was munching the apple again.

"Well I'd better..." But then something clicked. "Hey, Pikachu, didn't you say you were full?"

"Pi? Pi, pika pikachu."

"Never mind," he waved dismissively, not really understanding what the mouse had said. Sometimes Ash wished he could tell what Pikachu was speaking. He had been with the pokemon almost twenty four-seven for the last five years, but he still could only grasp the general idea of what Pikachu was saying sometimes, and sometimes he couldn't tell anything at all. Maybe he'd never truly understand Pikachu's words, but that didn't matter as long as their friendship lasted.

"Come on Pikachu," Ash beckoned him, and the mouse followed him out of the kitchen on all fours, the half-eaten apple forgotten. "We're going to Oak's."

Outside the last flakes of snow fell sparsely, so Ash changed to his usual black shirt and jeans, all under a heavy black and green winter coat. Pikachu jumped on his arms and he stuffed the pokemon within the coat's V-neck opening, leaving only the head poking through it.

Pallet Town was beautiful that morning with the white covered houses and streets. The rising sun cast a glow through the sailing clouds that changed the colors of the world to a burning orange. Ash thought about that beauty, and about how much people took it for granted.

The beams receded and disappeared as the great orb died before his eyes...

Ash shook his head forcefully, and he could just feel the beginnings of a hell of a migraine.

"Pikapi?" Pikachu called him, his lively hazel eyes filled with concern and unconditional love as they watched his trainer. Ash couldn't stand to look at them.

"It's nothing," he said, wanting to drop the conversation. Nothing more was said between them as they made their way towards the ranch in between the serene houses, the arrogant sun and the morning cold.

--- XXX --- XXX ---

Very near that same place, the diurnal pokemon were already out of their slumber, while the nocturnal prepared to rest for the day. It was winter, and the change of season caused the habitual change on most of the wild creatures' habits. In the forests pidgeys and pidgeottos chirped and cawed preparing for their migration, rhyhorns either ate the fresh berries or prepared themselves to hunt, while the wild growlithes ran around with their packs.

It was in that morning, the sky filled with the last snowflakes and sunbeams that filtered through the opening clouds, that another creature zipped through the sky overhead. She gracefully flew in swift and fluid motions with the ease of centuries, her pink fur shining in the dawn's light and her blue eyes sparking crystalline like the sky itself. The cold did not bother her, as much as the heat did not bother her; neither furious blizzards nor fiery volcanoes could harm her, and so she flew unconcerned.

Sometimes she shot through the air like a bullet and sometimes she lagged in lazy movements, sometimes high up, sometimes in low glide, but no matter who or what you were, you would never be able to spot her, for she knew how to keep from being seen, centuries, or maybe millenniums of experience on her side. And so she flew without preoccupation.

She reached a high mountain of granite, and with great speed she spiraled around it, reaching the peak in seconds, giggling in delight. On the summit, on a large stone that loomed over the vast view, she perched, staring serene at the dance of color and light ribbons. She sighed at the wondrous sight, even though she had seen it time and time again in her long life. Still she could be marveled by watching these simple beauties no matter how many times she had witnessed them.

The wind blew, and in its sound she seemed to hear something. She tipped and turned her small cat-like ears, trying to make out the sound. Her eyes were closed in concentration, and soon she could filter one sound amongst the world's cacophony. A voice.

"Meeewww..."

The voice was grave and deep, whispering her name in human words. She could not recognize it, but it seemed familiar somehow. For what must have been the first time in centuries she felt a shiver traveling across her body.

"Meeewww..."

She couldn't feel any presence near her and she couldn't think of any pokemon capable of keeping hidden from her senses, and that didn't help the sudden knot on her stomach.

"Mew, can you hear me...?"

"Y-yes," she answered, surprising herself with the shacking of her words. Something about that voice seemed to strike deeply within her heart. "W-who are you?"

There was no answer for a long time, except for the sudden howls of the currents through the now clean air, the snow having stopped falling. She could feel it then, something around her, in the stones, in the winds, in the shadows...

Behind her.

She whirled around, and then she saw it. A great wolf, bigger than any canine she had ever seen, his fur the darkness of the depths of the earth, his eyes burning with searing flames. He stood there, the light seemingly not to touch him, not daring to, tendrils of dark red light sprouting from its shoulder blades and back, waving in the air like wind or gravity had no effect on them. The creature looked at her intensively, and for the first time she could remember, Mew was scared. Really scared.

"It's nice to meet you again, Mew," the wolf said, human words escaping his muzzle with that same grave voice that rumbled like an earthquake.

"Once again?" Mew wondered, puzzled. "What do you mean? Who are you?"

He laughed loudly, the sound traveling and echoing through the mountains and the plains. Mew shivered again. "It's really true then!" he exclaimed afterwards. "You don't remember!"

"Remember what?" she shouted at him, aware of the strange set of emotions that that pokemon caused to spur in her. "Just what do you mean?"

He only laughed more and more, the tendrils flowing and bursting with red fire as he did.

"Tell me!" she shrieked, and then came a large explosion that rocked the peak, the wolf leaping swiftly away to another rock. It was only after moments that Mew realized that it had been her that threw that attack. The shock was enough to let her stare at the crater she caused for what seemed like minutes. She had never, ever lost her cool enough to attack without thinking. What was happening? Who was that black wolf?

"My, my," he jeered, his ember-like eyes filled with amusement. "Isn't she feisty?" And he laughed long and hard. After a while he was looking at her intently once again. "That's right, cute kitty. That's the way I like it."

His words snapped her to reality, and a growl escaped her throat as she glared at him. If anything, that just seemed to please him more. "Who are you?"

He smirked. "You really don't remember me, do you? Very well my fair kitten, my name is Rufius, Master of the Blazing Depths, the Brother of Fire." His smirk widened. "And I'm here to take you with me."

That did it. His name clicked something inside her. A feeling of pure and irrational terror seized her like a tidal wave and she did the first thing that came to mind. She bolted across the air, towards the horizon in blinking speed.

Rufius did or said nothing as she went, but the smirk did not leave his face. When he knew she was far enough, he spoke, "Run kitty, run. I have other means beside speed to catch you, and I have plenty of time."

The air wavered around him, and soon he disappeared amongst the shadows of the sunrise light.

--- XXX --- XXX ---

Ash leaned against the wood fence, staring uninterestedly as his tauros' stampeded through the ranch, uncaring of the snow that covered the grass. He honestly didn't feel like doing anything today. Even though the dream had at least stopped hammering in his mind for the most part,  it was replaced by an ominous feeling of foreboding, and he felt that something was going to happen. No, something _was _happening right then, but he couldn't pinpoint what.

Pikachu was already long gone, and Ash didn't need to think hard to know where he was. Ever since they had last returned to their hometown, Ash found out (mostly through following his constantly disappearing electric mouse around) that Pikachu had a mate. The female was quite amazing to tell the truth. Her fur, unlike the average, was a clear white like the snow on which he stood, and her cheeks and stripes were a bright green, as were her eyes. Ash had teased Pikachu for days afterwards, saying just how much of a lucky fellow he was, and that he could give him some tips. This continued until one day Ash's hair ended up standing on end and smoking.

Ash chuckled at the recollection, realizing right then the reason why Pikachu had kept that secret.

"What's so funny, Ash?" came a voice from behind, but Ash didn't need to turn to know who it was.

"Nothing Tracey," he said as his friend leaned on the fence beside him. "I was just thinking about how things have been changing around here."

Tracey, who was wearing brown cargo pants and a brown winter coat, examined him. "Changing?"

It wasn't exactly what Ash was thinking about; it had just popped in his mind. But now that he said it, he saw just how much it was true. Not only Pikachu, but his life overall. He had gone through so many championships, five years of almost non-stop training, seen places and people around the globe... and now he realized that the fantasies he used to have about training, about traveling and battling were... becoming more realistic, to tell the truth. He didn't really think that he could become the world's _greatest _master, but he could still become a master nonetheless. Couldn't he?

_...living a world of lies, a life and a dream that will never be yours..._

He rubbed his temples, feeling the rising headache like a metal slicing through his thoughts.

"Ash, you okay? Ash? _Ash?_"

Ash's head jerked up and he looked at Tracey, who seemed truly worried. He shook his head. "It's nothing Trace, just a small headache."

"You want an aspirin?"

Ash thought about it. "Please."

Tracey went back to the house without another word.

Ash watched him go, hearing his boots crunching the snow and seeing like his breath steamed in the air. It was cold he realized, as if he had forgotten of that fact.

He slid down on the fence until his bum hit the crusty cold surface beneath him, and he sat there, his arms dangling over his knees and his brown eyes centered at nothing. He sat that way for a long time.

--- XXX --- XXX ---

Pikachu had been watching Ash for minutes from the high branch of a nearby tree. Now he looked concernedly to his trainer, who, if it wasn't for his open eyes, one might have thought was sleeping, or dead. Even his blinks were slow and he seemed to be far away in some daydream-land of his.

Light climbed the tree with ease and quickness, reaching Pikachu in seconds. She stood there, watching her mate with flattened ears and the same concerned look he had on her green eyes.

"Pika?"

He jumped and yelled loudly at her voice. After a moment he blushed. "Light! God girl, you scared the living Jesus out of me."

She gave him one of those smiles that had the same effect every time; making him feel like jelly composed his skeleton instead of bones. "Sorry Pika, you were just a little away and I wanted to bring you back." She looked at Ash still sitting there on the snow. "He's still there?" It wasn't really a question.

"Yep," he answered, following her gaze.

Light examined Pikachu for a while, then, "You really care about him, don't you?"

Pikachu nodded. "He's my best friend. The first human I've ever come to respect, to be honest."

"What's happening to him?"

"Well," Pikachu started, "it's just today, but he seems so far away, so... lost. And it's getting worse by the minute too."

"Do you think there's anything you can do for him?"

He looked at her then, and seemed to think that over. "I don't know."

But she just smiled that beautiful white and furry smile. "This has just started today, Pika. Let him be for now. It'll probably pass."

He smiled back shyly. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"And in the meanwhile," she cooed, walking to him and nuzzling his neck the way she knew he loved, wrapping her arms around his. "Why don't we get ourselves busy?"

He smiled and nuzzled her back. "I think that's a great ide..."

He was interrupted by an enormous explosion on the distance. They both looked towards it, small arms still intertwined, to see a large, thick cloud of smoke rising from the forest and flocks of birds flying scared from the trees. It was far, but close enough to the ranch to be worrying, plus it had been _big_.

"What was that?" Light asked.

"I don't know," Pikachu told her, looking around to Ash who was at last rising and looking towards the same thing. "But I think I'll find out soon enough."

"It's probably just some nidokings quarreling," she told him, but there was something in her tone that gave it away. "Pika, you don't have..."

"I don't think that's it, Light," he said, then he smiled at her and gave her a small lick on her black nose, which made her close her clear eyes and giggle. "Don't worry, I'll be back soon." And he was climbing down the tree, calling for Ash who was already running on that direction.

Light looked to them as they ran away, then at the smoke, and she felt, like Pikachu had felt, that there was something happening around there. Something big.

--- XXX --- XXX ---

She didn't look back; didn't dare look back. She just flew as fast as she could away from him. She didn't know how he appeared wherever she went, how he attacked her, avoiding all of her senses, mental and physical, but she knew that he was dangerous, that she had to run, fly, _escape._

Another Shadow Ball came, this one even bigger than the last. It grazed her side; it felt like burning and freezing, inside, outside, her flesh her skin her mind... he was all around her. She had to run away from him, from it, whatever, whoever it was. She had to run run _run!_

--- XXX --- XXX ---

The explosion had been big enough to rock the entire house, even though it had happened so far away. Tracey almost dropped the glass of water he was carrying to Ash, and he set it aside as he went to the large window of the living room, looking at both the large column of thick chocking smoke rising towards the clearing skies and the trainer and his pokemon that ran towards it.

"What in heavens is happening around here?" It was Samuel Oak, descending the stairs as fast as he could, his gray hair tangled to all sides. The professor had been working on an important experiment until the sun was almost up and he had until now been taking some rest.

"Some sort of explosion," Tracey informed him. "It was far, but close to the ranch, and it was huge."

Prof. Oak stood beside Tracey, looking fixedly out the window. "What pokemon could create such an explosion?"

Right then the whole house trembled, and another blast was seen, this time closer and bigger, the sound was piercing their ears and rattling the glass panes. Pokemon could be heard growling and barking and yipping and doing whatever sound they did hysterically. It must have been almost half-a-mile away, but it was still felt, and whatever was causing it was closing in.

"Ash went to see," Tracey remembered to tell him.

"He what?" Samuel's face was filled with shock and concern, but soon he was shacking his head. "That boy. He never thinks twice before jumping into danger."

"It's how Ash is professor. There's nothing we can do about it. He's probably concerned about the pokemon in that part of the ranch"

"Tracey, get yourself ready," Prof. Oak told him as he made his way back up the stairs. "We're going out."

--- XXX --- XXX ---

Rufius was having the time of his life. He chased Mew over the forests and the mountains until he was in a place where he'd be comfortable, then he started attacking her from every different angle, using the shadows to move quickly and undetectably from one place to the other. He made her spin around in circles, but he knew she didn't realize it. The amount of pure terror she was emanating was delicious, intoxicating. It made him remember old times.

He relished in her fear. It fueled him, made the hunt all that more exciting, but he knew he'd have to end it sooner or later. He'd have to paralyze her, render her unable to fly around, and maybe then she'd fight back. It would be that much more fun if she did.

He reached out of the shadows right in her path, and this time he used a large Flamethrower, powerful enough to set the wet, frozen trees around him on fire instantly. Mew dodged, like he knew she would, but she was growing tired, more emotionally than physically, but tired nonetheless.

Maybe he didn't have to take her away so soon. Maybe he could have some fun beforehand. He had been told to simply take her back alive, her body or mental state not being specified. Maybe he could taste on her fear, and then feed upon what he truly wanted. She was quite attractive after all, especially the energy she produced, the millenniums since the last time he had seen her not having changed her a bit. If he had the chance, maybe...

He entered and left the shadows, always one step ahead of the harum-scarum above him. It was just too much fun, but he knew that he'd have to end it. He was lucky; no pokemon dared come to the section of the forest he was confining the kitty into. He might as well have what he wanted. A sadistic grin formed itself on his black muzzle at the thought.

He leapt on a high stone, and watched as she flew away from him. He prepared himself to end it, like a persian who prepared to finally eat the ratatta after toying around with it. It would take a large amount of his energy, especially in that cold, but it would be necessary. You needed something big to take a mew down. He knew that from experience.

The fiery tendrils arched forward until their tips where next to his snout.

Mew flew away as fast as she could, becoming more and more distant.

He opened his mouth, the fiery energy flowing through his muzzle and the threads in arched red fire. He summoned the shadows and the heat that existed around him.

The kitty cat was no more than a spec on his vision, but it didn't matter. Not too long now.

--- XXX --- XXX ---

Ash had been following the sound of the blasts as fast as he could, Pikachu at his heels as he ran through the iced forest in Prof. Oak's ranch. The explosions occurred in many places, but they seemed to be concentrated in one particular area. All around him pokemon of all species ran away from that direction: pidgeys, raticates, nidorinos, other pikachus, and many more than Ash could count.

Ash realized that, as he approached the site, his headache worsened, and it wasn't because of the sound or the fire and smoke through which he started to cross now. It was something else, something there, something that he could feel deep within him, and that made him run all the faster.

Beside him, Pikachu was staring at his face in great concern. The mouse could see something in Ash's eyes, something that he had never seen before, and not only that. He could feel it, he could feel the coldness that was taking over Ash, and he felt now that something was wrong around there. Very wrong indeed.

That was when they felt it. All around them the lighting changed, the shadows seemed to move and stretch to the direction they were heading, and the temperature dropped so much they thought they had somehow reached the North Pole.

Something was going on there, that was sure, and it wasn't going to be pretty.

--- XXX --- XXX ---

The ball of dark fire was almost completely formed on his mouth, seeming to be held by the tendrils. Mew could no longer be seen by average human eyes, but the blazing ones of Rufius could see her very well.

He aimed carefully, and fired.

--- XXX --- XXX ---

Ash and Pikachu stopped immediately as they saw the enormous streak of dark red energy that knifed the sky. The temperature skyrocketed around them, and that was enough to make them feel slightly dizzy. The snow around them was melting before their eyes, and they felt like they would liquefy too.

The beam traveled the skies until, far off, it exploded in an enormous blast that shook the earth and deafened their ears. The light of the explosion subsided much before the sound, and while their ears stopped buzzing they saw another cloud of smoke, this one easily five times bigger than the others.

"Pika..." Pikachu murmured in awe, but Ash didn't hear. His eyes were set somewhere else. Where the beam had originated.

He could still feel it, that painful presence, and he somehow knew it was tired from having used the Heat Beam attack. Ash didn't know how he knew the name of that attack, he had never even heard of an attack called Heat Beam, but he knew. And he also knew something else. The presence was moving; more slowly than before, but moving.

"Ash!"

He whirled around, and saw Tracey and Prof. Oak coming towards him, riding on a large arcanine, one that Ash could recognize anywhere. It was Gary's.

"Ash," Tracey called him again as they stopped in front of them. "What's going on around here anyway? What was that?"

"Ash, it was very foolish of you to go running into harm's way like this," Samuel started to reprimand him. "Imagine what could have happened..."

But Ash was no longer hearing him. "Arcanine," he said, taking the wolf's attention to himself. Ash stared him in the eyes. "Take me there." He pointed towards the explosion.

"Pikapi..."

"Ash, we can't," Tracey began. "It's too dangerous..."

"Ash, Arcanine only obeys Gary or me." Prof. Oak cut in. "He won't..."

But he was silenced as the large red canine, his eyes filled with a strange fire that he had never seen before, nodded to Ash and bent down slightly, allowing the to hop up. They were running before anyone could say anything else, and they all stared at Ash, who now seemed far, far away from them, his mind set completely ahead.

--- XXX --- XXX ---

Rufius was spent. That Heat Beam had taken a lot of him, as he expected it to, but it was all worth it. Mew had been hit, and she had fallen in the forest below. All through the path the ray had crossed the air the temperature had risen so high that everything was burning, the snow melting and evaporating in thick white clouds. He hasn't lost his touch. He was pleased.

He could hardly hear the wild pokemon even with his sensitive ears. They must be still fleeing as far and as fast as they could, and there was nothing that could please him more. Except perhaps for what he could accomplish there soon.

He moved quickly, though his current speed was nothing compared to walking the shadows, but he wanted to save his energy, considering that Mew was still probably capable of fighting back.

His paws made no sound as they moved across the yellow-brown grass beneath the melting snow, which was now solidifying again. He padded around the burnt or still burning trees and across a melted pond, which too was regaining its hard and smooth covering. Rufius hated the cold; things never really burned the way he liked when it was cold and wet. But he couldn't argue, not this time.

The crater was large, around two to three hundred yards had been cleansed from the forest, and in here the flames still burned steady. And, in the middle of the destruction, he saw Mew. She was still mostly well, though her fur was burnt in places. Still it was much more than he had expected. _Little kitty cat's tougher than I thought. _And he was grinning in the same way he always grinned.

He approached her slowly, making as little sound as possible, his tendrils flowing around and burning whatever they touched, until he was right on top of her.

Her lids flew open then, bright blue eyes looking directly at dark burning ones, and she unconsciously started to back away. Rufius seized her with a large ebony paw, and she wriggled and trashed beneath him, crying and screaming.

He wondered in slight amazement just how much confused and terrified her mind must be. But that was better, oh so much better.

His threads of fiery red light arched forward once more, its searing tips dangerously close to Mew. He would take just a little, just a little of the energy her body could provide, beautiful, magnificent, delicious energy. He was faintly aware of the drops of hot saliva falling from his muzzle.

"Fire Blast!"

He snapped his head to the right, but it was too late to dodge. The flaming star hit him squarely on the side, and he was sent to the edge of the makeshift clearing where the large explosion buried him with dirt.

--- XXX --- XXX ---

Samuel, Tracey and Pikachu had been shocked with what they had seen. There, in the middle of that blasted place were two pokemon. One they could recognize, though believing in their eyes was another matter completely, while the larger one that had kept it pinned to the ground was unlike any other they had seen. They began wondering what in the world was going on there, and who was that black wolf?

Ash, on the other hand, didn't think about any of that. He simply saw it and ordered the attack he knew Gary's arcanine could use. Arcanine used the Fire Blast instantly afterwards, and it was lucky in being capable of taking the dark pokemon by surprise, and getting it away from the mew.

The boy hopped off the mount and ran towards the legendary pokemon. When he reached her, what greeted him was a shell of what was once a lively pokemon, her eyes tightly shut, crying and flailing against an imaginary foe, unaware that she was already free. He bent down to her, and touched the silky pink fur on her head.

Her eyes snapped open, and he could feel her psychic powers flaring, preparing to blast him away. Still, in that strange daze that he found himself into, Ash did nothing except softly scratching hears. There was a sound, the sound of singing, and Ash was faintly aware that he was the one singing, a song that he had never heard before in a language that he had never spoken. But still he sang in a voice so soft that it made the song carry out with a magic entirely its own.

Tracey, Samuel, Pikachu and Arcanine approached slowly, entranced by the sound of the alien, though beautiful, words rolling off of Ash's lips. They watched in quiet marveling how Mew eased and relaxed, and how she looked at Ash in a way that was beyond their grasp. It seemed like adoration, confusion, and a faint recognition, mingled together in a strange rainbow of conflicting emotions.

A quaking roar erupted from the pile of dirt and rocks on the far side, accompanied by jets of red fire in all directions. The black pokemon leaped from it and looked at Ash with such rage that was beyond animal. "GET AWAY FROM HER!" he roared in perfect human speech.

The sound of the pokemon leaving his previous landing site seemed to bring Ash back from his trance-like state. He looked around disoriented. "What..."

"Pikapi!"

Ash turned to Pikachu, and then to Rufius. He prepared to flee but it was too late. One of the flaming threads lashed forward lightning fast and knocked Ash away like a rag-doll. He hit the dirt, the pain from his side ripping through his body like fire and poison.

"PikaCHUUU!" The electric type screamed as he released a huge Thunder against his opponent. The attack was like a column of golden jagged fire that descended from the skies and tore through the earth towards the fiery wolf, who leaped away with blinding speed. It was too late when they realized that he was jumping towards the mew.

They looked as the shadows moved and grouped around the legendary pokemon, and how they opened to a dark space beyond. They watched as the dark wolf landed on it and through it, taking Mew with him. And they watched as the portal closed and disappeared, leaving nothing but the silence in between the cracks of the flames.

None of them could truly tell what had just happened, none had the voice to say anything, but one of them, who was now trying to stand up and ignore the tearing pain on his side, knew that something, something terrible was happening. He looked at the sky, at the now higher sun amongst the clouds.

Something was happening, and whatever it was, it would be soon.

--- XXX --- XXX ---

Around the outskirts of Fortree City, the chilling winter that had been assaulting Kanto had not yet arrived, but you could see it coming, if you knew where to look. You could see the line of heavy clouds coming from the horizon, you could feel the temperature that dropped steadily, and you could see the bird pokemon preparing to migrate to warmer climates, most probably around the Orange Islands.

A winter storm would come soon, but that wasn't the only storm NightSong was concerned with.

She emerged from her den that morning feeling more horrible than she had ever felt. The night had been troublesome and there was little food this time, and she had intended to ignore her hunger and sleep the whole day. But, alas, it hadn't been possible.

She made her way around the underbrush and the looming trees that were bigger and taller in that region than anywhere else in Hoenn, almost seeming to spear the skies. She avoided the spots where the light was too bright, hoping that it could at least become a cloudy day. She, like most if not all absols, hated bright light.

She emerged from the thick vegetation to a large round clearing, in which a pond stood, its water sparkling clear and clean and absolutely desirable. She licked her muzzle.

She drank much until she was satisfied, but still she didn't feel any better. The wind started blowing on the dark blue fur of her face like a lover's soft caress. She, also like most of her kind, loved the feel of the wind incessantly combing her white and blue fur. She closed her eyes in delight.

"NightSong, I honestly didn't think I'd find you here at this time of the morning," came a small, male voice to her ears. Nightsong smiled, turning to see the minun that was padding towards her quite excitedly.

"Hello, Shocker. How was your night?"

"Could've been better," he said as he stood before her. "How was yours?"

"Could've been better," she replied, uselessly fighting a smile that crept on her furry lips.

"Well then," Shocker began, leaping on her head and facing her upside down, his blue ears dangling on the breeze and his blue eyes looking directly at her red ones. "Tell Doctor Shocker all your problems, gal, for he can solve them all."

She smiled at him like she always smiled at his antics, but soon it faltered, and she lay down, her front paws crossed beneath her muzzle. Shocker had not moved from his perch. "It's... complicated."

"Try me." Shocker's voice still had that characteristic playfulness, but there was concern there too, and NightSong knew it.

For some time she didn't answer, looking at the waters and at the other pokemon that arrived to drink. There were zigzagoons, seedots, ralts and linoones. None of them seemed to care much about the dark and electric types that lay on the opposite side.

Eventually NightSong sighed. "All right Shocker, if you want to know." There was another pause, then, "I've been having dreams."

"Dreams? Like premonitions?"

"I don't know if they are premonitions. They seem... different, somehow." She stopped yet again, feeling very uncomfortable with telling her tale.

"Go on, NightSong," Shocker asked her, and this time his voice was soft, encouraging.

She took another deep breath. "In my dreams I see... a place... some sort of weird, old ruins deep within a forest. It's something that seems familiar, somehow, but I can't remember ever being to a place like that. And then, just like that, I was within a large human city, but that city was... strange... empty."

Shocker listened to her attentively, digesting every word. He had already listened to some of NightSong's 'dreams' before, when she could perfectly predict bad things that could happen. Sometimes these things occurred close to them, sometimes far away, but they were usually natural storms or catastrophes, things that the pokemon were already very experienced with. But that dream wasn't like any other one of the 'dreams' she had before.

"In that part I was walking through the city," she continued, "and I looked all around me and I couldn't see anyone, not one human anywhere I turned to. There were cars in the middle of the street and within the stores and buildings everything seemed to have been forgotten and abandoned in a hurry, like they had no time to take their things.

"After some time I saw something else, something that I don't think should be there. It was in the middle of an avenue, and it was there alone."

"What was it?" Shocker asked, seeing as she hesitated. So far he had only been able to grasp most of it, many of the words and objects she described being completely alien to him, except maybe for 'city' and 'street'. That's what he got from befriending a formerly trained pokemon, but he wasn't complaining. He just hadn't said anything yet because he didn't want to interrupt her line of thought.

"It was a door," she told him.

"A door? In the middle of nowhere?"

"Yes. An average, black wooden door, standing there in the middle of everything." And she stopped there.

"Wasn't there anything else?"

"Yes," she told him, getting up while he leaped back on the dirt. "But right now I don't want to talk about it."

"Okay, but what are you gonna do about it?"

She looked at him confusedly. "What do you mean?"

"Well, isn't it like a premonition?" he asked her. "If it is, then there must be a reason for you to have seen it."

She seemed to think deeply for a while, then shook her head. "No, it wasn't like a premonition. Not entirely." She lifted her head, watching as the clouds on the sky became heavier and started to block out the sun. At least that was going the way she wanted. "It was... more like a path."

Shocker's ears, which were dangling back and forth until now, stopped completely. "A path?"

"A path," she agreed. And then there was silence between them for quite some time, until she abruptly turned around and started walking back to the forest.

"Hey, hey, wait!" Shocker ran after her. "Where are you going?"

"South," she told him. "And then west. If you're coming with me, then you'd better be ready for a long travel."

Shocker grinned, then leapt on her head once more. "You can count on me, gal. This place is just too boring, and I'm in the mood for adventure," he told her cheerfully. "But how can you know where to go? Did you see it in the dream?"

"Not exactly," she said, jumping up a large root and heading towards the route that existed nearby. "But I might have a hunch."

--- XXX --- XXX ---

_This chapter was beta-read by **Saph**. A lot of thanks to you. ^_^_


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